GIRLFRIEND OF COP SHOOTER TO BE ARRAIGNED TODAY

A former firefighter, with his 18-year-old girlfriend in tow, was apparently bent on a mission to kill a San Diego police officer and then kidnap and burn to death another person in a continuation of a violent rampage this week, prosecutors said Friday.

Philip Martin Hernandez, 40, a former Cal Fire firefighter in Blythe, was killed in a shootout with police Wednesday night before he could carry out his plans, but his accused teenage accomplice was arrested and is being investigated for her role in the scheme.

The new details were revealed Friday, when Cindy Altamirano Garcia was arraigned on felony charges of carjacking, robbery and making criminal threats in connection with a crime spree that began Monday. The young woman, with a disheveled curly bob, remained silent in court as Deputy District Attorney Jim Koerber detailed the accusations against her.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Fraser noted the “extreme public safety” threat Garcia posed and ordered her bail set at $1 million. She faces up to 19 years in prison if convicted of all charges.

Prosecutors said she was at all of the crimes Hernandez committed on Monday — shootings, arsons and robberies — and could face additional charges.

Her defense attorney said in court that she grew up in National City and had no prior criminal record. Her mother was in court but declined to talk to reporters after the hearing.

Hernandez, divorced with a teenage daughter, began a sexual relationship with Garcia when she was 16. The two moved to Blythe briefly in April, but she reported the relationship to police in May, saying he had grown overly possessive, authorities said.

Riverside County prosecutors charged him with having sex with a minor. A San Diego police officer arrested him two weeks ago on a $10,000 warrant in the case.

But the pair had rekindled their relationship by then, even traveling to Europe together in September, Koerber said.

Hernandez was supposed to appear in court Monday to be arraigned on the sex charges.

Instead, he snapped.

Early Monday, he shot a man in Hillcrest because, prosecutors said, he thought he was targeting a Blythe police officer who had investigated him on the sex abuse charges. The victim, who was walking along Upas Street on the northern edge of Balboa Park when he was wounded, remains in critical condition.

Authorities also said it appeared the couple had planned to locate and kill the San Diego police officer who had arrested Hernandez on the sex abuse warrant.

On Wednesday night, the couple’s newly purchased white van was spotted at the San Diego police headquarters downtown. Hernandez drove off after learning he had been spotted by police, Koerber said.

In addition, the prosecutor said, the couple was making preparations to kidnap an unnamed person for ransom. Once kidnapped, the plan was to put the person in the van and set fire to it, Koerber said.

“Some preparations had been made for that to be committed,” Koerber said outside the courtroom.

Authorities did not disclose whether the couple had a specific person in mind.

The rampage began shortly before 2 a.m. Monday, when Hernandez shot up and set his pickup on fire in East Mission Bay.

About 45 minutes later in Hillcrest, as he and Garcia were arguing, he shot the man he mistakenly believed was the Blythe police officer.

About 9 a.m., while disguised as a cop, Hernandez robbed a pedestrian at gunpoint in a Mission Valley parking lot.

About 12:15 p.m., he robbed an off-duty San Diego police officer using an ATM in Escondido. He forced the officer to the ground, then shot him in the head. The round grazed Officer Les Stewart’s skull, and he is recovering in good condition. Shell casings from the two shootings matched, Koerber said.

Then, the couple went to a shopping center in San Diego’s Oak Park, where Hernandez pointed a gun at a man and demanded his car. Garcia is accused of wearing a ski mask there and pointing a gun at the victim, threatening to “blow his head off” if he didn’t comply. She handcuffed the victim and held him at gunpoint while Hernandez transferred their belongings to the victim’s Suzuki, Koerber said.

He set on fire the white Ford Crown Victoria they were leaving behind, and fled, police said.

The Suzuki was later found in Chula Vista, also torched.

The couple then purchased a white van from a man in Spring Valley for $2,700.

It was then that authorities say the pair began preparations for the next phase of their deadly plot.

But police intervened in time.

About 90 minutes after the van was spotted at police headquarters in downtown San Diego, it was seen again on National Avenue in Barrio Logan. An officer followed it at a safe distance, waiting for backup officers to arrive before stopping it.